Pa. absentee voting extended to 5 p.m. today

Absentee voting in Pennsylvania has been extended through 5 p.m. on Thursday due to Hurricane Sandy.

In Chester County, voters needing an absentee ballot can visit voters service at the Government Services Center at 601 Westtown Road in West Goshen. The offices will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and voters can cast those ballots in person, according to Voter Services Director James Forsythe. He said voters are being given that opportunity because mailing the ballots in on time will be a near impossibility.

By law, absentee ballots need to be received by voter services by 5 p.m. on Friday to count, while any ballots received by Monday will count for the presidential election only. While the actual ballots have until Friday, the requests for an absentee ballot was originally due by Tuesday, but was extended by Gov. Tom Corbett.

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“It was important to allow people to come in that would have otherwise been here Monday or Tuesday (if not for the storm),” Forsythe said. “People have been very appreciative.”

Forsythe said the county has seen quite a few requests for absentee ballots, but the numbers are down slightly from the last presidential election in 2008. In 2008, nearly 20,000 requests were made, while as of Thursday afternoon just over 18,000 requests were made this year.